Embodiments of the present invention relate to a liquid crystal display (LCD) mother panel and a method of manufacturing the same.
Thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs) have been becoming more and more popular because of its merits such as small volume, low power consumption, no radiation and low cost.
A TFT-LCD comprises a color filter substrate and an array substrate arranged opposite to each other. During attaching the color filter substrate and the array substrate to each other during manufacture of the TFT-LCD, some members, including primary spacers, secondary spacers, a primary sealant element and a secondary sealant element, can be interposed between the two substrates so as to support and maintain a uniform distance between the two substrates.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a structure obtained by attaching the color filter substrate to the array substrate, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a conventional structure by attaching a color filter substrate and an array substrate taken along a line A-A in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a mother panel 100 comprising the color filter substrate 1, the array substrate 2 and members between the color filter substrate 1 and the array substrate 2 includes a plurality of panels 3. A primary sealant element 4 is disposed at periphery of each individual panel 3, and primary spacers 5 are dispersed in a region (i.e., display region) surrounded by the primary sealant element 4. The primary spacers 5 serve to maintain a uniform distance between the color filter substrate 1 and the array substrate 2 in each individual panel 3 after the attaching. Meanwhile, a secondary sealant element 6 is disposed between adjacent individual panels 3 and outside each individual panel 3, that is, at a dummy region of the LCD mother panel 100. Secondary spacers 7 are dispersed between the secondary sealant element 6 and the primary sealant element 4 so as to maintain a uniform distance between the color filter substrate 1 and the array substrate 2 attached to each other at a region between adjacent panels 3. Liquid crystal material is filled in the space surrounded by the primary sealant element 4 between the color filter substrate 1 and the array substrate 2.
With performing a vacuum-attaching step for the above described LCD mother panel 100, there are following problems: when the vacuum state is broken and the LCD mother panel 100 is in the air, the substrate is subject to different supporting force at both sides of the primary sealant element 4 due to same atmospheric pressure but different spacers at both sides of the primary sealant element 4, as shown in FIG. 3. It may cause that the individual panel 3 has a varying thickness in the peripheral region (about the primary sealant element 4) and thus liquid crystal molecules are aligned abnormally, deteriorating display quality of the LCD panel.